Welcome to Vox Populi, where Columba College ākonga cast a critical eye over pop culture happenings. This week, we welcome Nanni Ge (Year 10) to review Jack London’s chilling cautionary tale To Build a Fire.

75 degrees below zero. 16 pages. A man, a fire, and the illusion of hope.

To Build a Fire by Jack London presents us with the simple idea of cold. Real, unimaginable cold. Short sentences that capture the full power of cold. Unlike the teasing, seasonal, predictable pinches we’re all used to.

9AM. We start with the man excited and hopeful, “quick and ready for the things of life.” He is hiking a trail, in hope of reaching an old camp by evening. He is well-prepared, and has a steady dog for a companion. The man’s only flaw was that he couldn’t imagine the strength of true cold.

12PM. The man makes a mistake. It’s only natural - he is still human, after all. But it’s already too late, one slip was enough. The cold never cares, she never considers, she never pities. She never forgives mistakes.

16 pages. Most of it used to describe the man’s slow descent into frozen despair. His foolish reactions to an all-encompassing nature. With every word, I started to realise that the cold is not just a number on a thermometer. Not just an earthly force - that would be a wild understatement; for she is a cosmic one. She was there before the existence of anything and she will remain still after nothing remembers her name, or her touch, or the lives she snapped short.

To Build a Fire crawls up onto you with a slow sense of dread. Just like the cold and her frosty, deadly presence.

Read To Build a Fire HERE.